Coastal erosion battle escalates

By Marian Wilkinson, Environment Editor

29 June 2009 — 12:00am

THE battle to save some of the state's most spectacular beachfront properties from severe erosion is set to escalate after lawyers for more Byron Bay residents sent letters to the local council demanding they be allowed to protect their properties.

The Mayor of Byron Shire, Jan Barham, said the council's lawyers received new demands on Friday. This followed a recent legal agreement that allowed a local property owner, John Vaughan, to rebuild a sandbag wall in front of his property at Belongil Beach where severe erosion is threatening his home.

"Each day we get a new legal threat," Cr Barham said.

The crisis at Byron Bay over coastal erosion, caused by a combination of engineering works and severe storms, is now threatening to involve the State Government. Byron Shire Council has backed a policy of so-called planned retreat to deal with the threat from coastal erosion, which Cr Barham said was developed in consultation with the Government.

This puts conditions on home owners in vulnerable areas requiring that their properties be demountable so they can be removed or demolished in the case of severe erosion.

The policy has come under intense scrutiny because the Government is drawing up guidelines to deal with a rise in sea levels caused by climate change. Sea-level rise is expected to result in more severe coastal erosion and affect thousands of coastal properties around Australia.

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Under its proposed policy, the Government said it would give "priority to public safety and protecting valuable publicly owned assets" leaving local councils and home owners to largely deal with the impact on private property. The proposals have raised serious concerns among coastal councils and residents.

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The president of Belongil Progress Association, Geoff Tauber, in a submission to the Government, said the proposals were unworkable and could result in more legal battles from home owners adversely affected by public works that protected state infrastructure but worsened the erosion down the coastline.

Last week a spokesman for the Premier, Nathan Rees, said the Government's proposals allowed landowners affected by coastal hazards to seek approval from their local council to construct works on their land to protect their property.